Report: Slow Holiday Sales Expected

As the markets set to open today, they will be greeted with some more not-sunny news: A report from the National Retail Federation that predicts the slowest holiday sales season in six years.

The report does not predict a decline in holiday spending, compared to last year -- consumers are not expected to actually spend less than they did last year. Instead, they are expected to spend more than last year, just not as much more as they have in past years.

Even though this is not what most would consider bad news -- Christmas stores won't shutter -- it might be bad enough for Wall Street to depress early trading.